SIBU: The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) is prepared to offer its services to introduce occupational safety and health (OSH) awareness to all schools.
Its chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said this would make the school a safer and healthier place for teachers, students and visitors alike.
Lee said the subject of ‘safe schools’ should not be confined to aspects concerning indiscipline, crimes, threats to the safety of students, bullying and gangster-like behaviour but also matters concerning the safety of school buildings, classrooms, equipment and available amenities.
In October last year, it was reported that some three per cent of 55,000 school buildings audited by the Ministry of Education were in poor condition and needed attention.
The OSH in School Programme is to ensure safety, health and welfare for those at work and to protect students against risk to safety and health in connection with the activities or persons at work.
Besides, it aims to establish a safe and healthy working environment involving the office, laboratory, canteen, toilet, hostel and field.
Through the ‘OSH in School Programme’, Lee said Niosh hoped to recommend to schools the importance of good OSH Management as a solution to all problems related to OSH.
Hence, he said OSH awareness should not be limited to teachers and school staff but extend to students.
‘This can be done through OSH education awareness, training and exhibition which are NIOSH’s core businesses,” he said.
He added that training and information dissemination were the main elements in ensuring that employees know the risk they were facing in the workplace and how to work safely in order to deal with the risk.
Lee said there was also a need for schools to be aware of the existence and importance of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 and its application to educational institutions in the interest of safety and health.
The application of the Act to the schools as ‘a place of work’ aims to make all schools safe and healthy places of work for teachers, students or visitors alike, he said.
“Although the Act is primarily intended for the protection of workers, it does include sufficient provisions for protecting ‘others’ affected by the activities of the working people,” he said.
In accordance with the Act, Lee said the school management and the Department of Education representing the
employers had general duties to ensure the safety, health and welfare of their employees (teachers and support staff) as well as to protect students and visitors affected by the activities of the school.
He said it was the duty of the employers to formulate a safety and health policy for the school, implement risk prevention through safety and health inspection, and safety and health auditing of schools to identify weaknesses and shortcomings.